Fun in the A.Z.

After we miraculously made our flight to Arizona, we rented a car and headed to our posh hotel.

Then we got to spend the weekend with some cute little kiddos.

This was about as close as I could get to Kaylee on this trip.  She wasn't quite ready to warm up to a stranger that looked vaguely familiar, and a little like her own mom, and who wanted to squeeze her like her mom.  But still... she knew.  I was NOT her mom.

And this is about as far as Nathan would allow Uncle Charles to go.

These 2 were best buds.  Playing iPads, iPhones, the Wii, building blocks...

...doing the potty dance...

...and reading together.  Nathan impressed both of us with his memorization of a couple of his books.  Someone must be doing well reading to their kids!

Check it out.  He was cracking me up.  Instead of saying "um" in between his sentences, he would say, "Wellll.."

Here we are eating Sunday dinner on Father's Day.  Nathan's seat was originally at the end of the table.  Then he realized how far away from Charles he was and so he had to fix that problem.

And this is where he gave Charles an extra show of affection.  A bite.  Took us all be surprise, haha!

But Charles didn't hold a grudge.

The very first morning I was there, I took Kare's Step Aerobics class.  3 words:  "She's gooood." And "Oooouuuch!"

We went house hunting in the rain.  Charles thought that in the event he actually wanted this job he was interviewing for, we should take advantage of our time there to see where we would... fit.  We found 2 houses in a "mormon" neighborhood.  We wanted to find a neighborhood with lots of kids.  Apparently mormons have a lot of kids??  So I've heard.

Addendum :

There was a brief moment between looking at houses and meeting the infamous Randi DeRoest and her family, where I was holding the cutest, snuggliest baby, and watching Charles hit it off so well with Randi's husband Brent, that I thought, "Yeah.  I could see myself living here.  I could totally join this group and have friends already! I mean, Randi even let me meet her WITHOUT her eye makeup being on."  If that's not a sign of true friendship, I don't know what is.

When the kids were in bed we watched "In Time" and played "Minute to Win It."  It was pretty entertaining.  Here's Kare using a banana tied to her beltloop to hit the marbles up over the ramp and into the box.  She did it.

And here's Charles moving a feather down his body (with no hands) and catch it in the can clipped on his pants.

He had to do this one twice.  Yep.  He's got skills.

Then on the last day we were there, Charles had his interview then we headed back to the airport once he was done.  Unfortunately no excitement at the airport this time.  The interview went well, and they offered him the job.  But after seeing how dysfunctional things seemed to be there, he decided that the grass may not always be greener.  The trip was fun, but it ultimately just helped Charles to gain a little more perspective and be happier where he's at.